Category: Foreign policy

Should Clegg back an EU referendum?

December 19, 2011 3:34 pm by Kiran Stacey

I wrote a few weeks ago that the number one priority of those at the heart of the coalition, and especially those close to Nick Clegg, was not to have a referendum on Europe. But there are people on his side who think the Lib Dem leader should effectively call the Eurosceptics’ bluff and back a referendum, not just on any new European treaty, but on the UK’s very membership of the union. It is an argument even Clegg used to advance.

Philip Stephens, the FT’s chief political commentator, made this call a few weeks ago in a provocative column (at least for a europhile) entitled Britain’s eurosceptics are right to call for a referendum. In it he argued:

Barring a euro break-up, Britain and its partners are now set on different courses. At some point the divergence will become unsustainable. The Tory sceptics may be right after all. There is a case for an in-or-out referendum. My guess is the sceptics would be sorely disappointed by the outcome. The voters are realists. Much as Brussels may irritate them, they know there is nothing splendid about isolation.

Now YouGov have done some polling that seems to back up Stephens’ conclusions, especially about the outcome of such a referendum.

Continue reading: “Should Clegg back an EU referendum?”

Tags: Guido Westerwelle
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, David Cameron, Europe, Foreign policy, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

Labour to LDs: Work with us on Europe

December 12, 2011 3:01 pm by Kiran Stacey

Douglas Alexander has written a piece for the New Statesman trying to prise open the cracks in the coalition over Europe.

In the run up to this afternoon’s debate on the EU, during which Ed Miliband is expected to paint Cameron as isolated both at home and abroad, the shadow foreign secretary has invited the Lib Dems to work with Labour to get the UK back into the heart of Europe.

He writes:

The roots of what happened on the night of Thursday 8 December lie deep in Cameron’s failure to modernise the Tory party. Just because he puts party interest before the national interest, there is no reason others should do the same. That is why I make a genuine offer to Liberal Democrats to work with us to try to get a better outcome for Britain, between now and when this agreement is likely to be finally tied down in March. Work can and should start immediately both to win back friends and allies and to consider what rules and procedures can avoid Britain’s further marginalisation.

Continue reading: “Labour to LDs: Work with us on Europe”

Tags: Douglas Alexander
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Europe, Foreign policy, Labour, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

‘Nervous’ Lib Dems toe the line on Europe UPDATED

December 9, 2011 2:41 pm by Kiran Stacey

Nicolas Sarkozy avoids shaking David Cameron's hand

So Britain has isolated itself in Europe by refusing to sign up to a deal to save the eurozone because other countries refused to give the UK specific safeguards to protect the single market and the City of London. Tory backbenchers are delighted, but what does the pro-European Lib Dem half of the coalition make of it?

Anyone expecting a massive bust up at the heart of the coalition will have been dismayed to read Nick Clegg’s statement this morning. The deputy prime minister said:

The demands Britain made for safeguards, on which the Coalition Government was united, were modest and reasonable. They were safeguards for the single market, not just the UK.

What we sought to ensure was to maintain a level playing field in financial services and the single market as a whole. This would have retained the UK’s ability to take tougher, not looser, regulatory action to sort out our banking system.

Continue reading: “‘Nervous’ Lib Dems toe the line on Europe UPDATED”

Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, Europe, Foreign policy, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg | Permalink

Werritty met other defence ministers UPDATED

October 18, 2011 11:50 am by Kiran Stacey

As Westminster waits for the publication of Sir Gus O’Donnell’s report into whether Liam Fox broke the ministerial code as a result of his friendship with Adam Werritty, Number 10 is drip-feeding new revelations into the public domain.

The latest is that Werritty met other defence ministers: specifically Gerald Howarth and Lord Astor. We don’t know when, where or how often though.

The other piece of news is that Werritty did not have any meetings in the Foreign Office or Number 10. What about other departments? Apparently the government hasn’t checked that.

Yet again, the new information only begs more questions.

Why was he meeting these ministers? How often did he see them? What did they discuss? Has he been into other departments?

The prime minister suggested last Wednesday he might publish a full list of Werritty’s meetings with all ministers. It looks like this suggestion has been allowed to wither on the vine.

We will simply have to hope that Sir Gus’s report when it is released later today tackles these issues once and for all.

UPDATE - Whatever the report says (and we will bring it to you soon after it is published at 2pm), we won’t have the benefit of getting a proper debate on it.

Speaker John Bercow has just refused an urgent question from Ed Miliband on the subject, which is strange given Bercow has been so good at allowing parliamentary time for the big issue of the day.

Tags: Euro, Simon Wolfson
Posted in Conservatives, Europe, Foreign policy, UK politics | Permalink

Richard Graham gets into trouble for calling Israel report ‘whitewash’

October 3, 2011 3:25 pm by Kiran Stacey

As a former diplomat, you might expect new Tory MP Richard Graham to choose his words carefully, especially because he works as the parliamentary private secretary to FCO minister Lord Howell, and definitely when talking about Israel and the Palestinians. So I was surprised to hear him talking to a fringe event on Sunday describing the Israeli government’s report into last year’s raid by its navy on the Gaza aid flotilla as a “whitewash”.

When talking about the report by the Sri Lankan ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission‘ into the struggle there between government forces and the Tamil Tigers, Graham said:

We know that internal government reports do not have a good track record. The Israeli report into the Gaza flotilla, for example, falls into the whitewash category.

Continue reading: “Richard Graham gets into trouble for calling Israel report ‘whitewash’”

Tags: Israel, Palestine, Richard Graham
Posted in Conservatives, Foreign policy, UK politics | Permalink

What are British forces doing in Libya now?

September 5, 2011 6:39 pm by Kiran Stacey

David Cameron looked comfortable and at ease in the House of Commons chamber on Monday afternoon when updating MPs on what has happened in Libya over the summer.

And well he might: the rebels have overtaken Tripoli, Gaddafi is on the run, and the one major controversy – the discovery of papers suggesting British intelligence colluded with the Gaddafi regime in the rendition of terror suspects – happened under the last government.

But as soon as one set of questions about the conflict ends (even Richard Ottaway, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, who has always been sceptical of the conflict, gave the prime minister credit for the way it has turned out), another begins: namely what happens to our troops now?

Continue reading: “What are British forces doing in Libya now?”

Tags: gaddafi, libya
Posted in David Cameron, Foreign policy, UK politics | Permalink

Cameron treads a fine line on Libya allegations

September 5, 2011 2:12 pm by Kiran Stacey

The revelations in the FT and elsewhere that MI6 appeared to have a close working relationship with the Gaddafi secret services is providing something of a dilemma for the current government.

One one hand, this is an open goal for the coalition to plunge the knife into Labour: to accuse them of collusion with the Gaddafi regime in torturing Libyan dissidents. And there are signs that Tory MPs are doing just that.

Patrick Mercer, the former chairman of the House of Commons subcommittee on counter-terrorism, said over the weekend:

This document seems to indicate that our intelligence services were getting unhealthily close to practices that the British government at the time and its successors rightly condemn.

I trust that the Foreign Secretary will look into this, despite the fact that it did not happen on his watch.

Continue reading: “Cameron treads a fine line on Libya allegations”

Tags: gaddafi, libya
Posted in Conservatives, David Cameron, Foreign policy, Labour | Permalink

Foreign Office cautious on Syria resolution

August 1, 2011 5:38 pm by Kiran Stacey

Syrians protest in Hama

After the brutal crackdown by Bashar al-Assad’s troops on protesters in Syria over the weekend, William Hague was pleased to find the Russians scrapping their earlier reluctance to criticise the regime and join the growing global condemnation of Mr Assad.

His diplomats in New York will use the opportunity to try and push through once more a resolution that failed in June, condemning the violence. The resolution will be reworded to take into account this weekend’s events.

But given Russia’s complex political make-up, no one in the Foreign Office is taking anything for granted. One official warned: “It is not until we have sat in the meeting that we can get into how member states may be thinking.”

Continue reading: “Foreign Office cautious on Syria resolution”

Tags: Alistair Burt, Syria, UN, William Hague
Posted in Foreign policy | Permalink

Foreign office announces ‘massive U-turn’ on World Service

June 22, 2011 11:48 am by Kiran Stacey

Apparently it’s a sign of strength to change your mind – at least that’s what David Cameron said yesterday about the sentencing U-turn.

So how’s this for a sign of strength? The foreign office this morning declared proudly on its website an additional £2.2m in funding for the World Service, headlining the announcement “Massive U-turn on BBC world funding”. (H/T to Tim Montgomerie at Conservative Home for the pic.)

Continue reading: “Foreign office announces ‘massive U-turn’ on World Service”

Tags: World Service
Posted in Conservatives, Foreign policy | Permalink

Increasingly “challenging” route via Pakistan for Afghan supplies

June 16, 2011 10:00 pm by Jo Johnson

I am no expert in military logistics, but I was struck by the extraordinary recent deterioration in the performance of the surface route to the Afghan theatre.

Right now, British troops are acutely dependent on our ability to send supplies by sea to Karachi, where they are unloaded and then taken by road through Pakistan. Ahead of this week’s Public Accounts Committee, the National Audit Office provided me with a briefing based on its detailed report into the Ministry of Defence’s logistics supply chain. This noted that only 15 per cent of consignments shipped by land through Pakistan between 10 December 2009 and 8 December 2010 arrived within the targeted time of 77-87 days, a fair way off the 75 per cent target.

Continue reading: “Increasingly “challenging” route via Pakistan for Afghan supplies”

Tags: Afghanistan, mod, Pakistan, public accounts committee
Posted in Foreign policy | Permalink

Hague prepares for battle with the House of Lords on Europe

June 16, 2011 6:30 pm by Kiran Stacey

Last night the government lost a crucial amendment to their Europe bill in the Lords by a handful of votes.

Peers voted to introduce a “sunset clause” on the entire bill (actually, the entire bill apart from one technical point), which would limit it to only five years. Importantly, this means that the so-called “referendum lock” – whereby any transfer of sovereignty from London to Brussels could only be allowed after a Yes vote in a referendum – would have to be voted on again in five years’ time.

The “referendum lock” is key to Cameron’s attempts to win back the support of Eurosceptic MPs who believe he let his party down by allowing the Lisbon Treaty to be written into law without a referendum.

The Foreign Office is therefore livid at what peers have done, regarding this as a “wrecking amendment” designed to spoil the whole bill. But William Hague (mojo back and intact) is intent on getting it through with the referendum lock in its original form.

An FCO source tells me the foreign secretary intends to face down peers, and they reckon that the government could get the numbers to stack up in the Lords next time, having only lost the amendement vote by a handful of votes. “It could have been worse”, my source says. Let’s see whether peers will be as pliant as the FCO hopes…

Tags: Referendum lock, William Hague
Posted in Conservatives, Europe, Foreign policy | Permalink

Post-invasion plan for Libya only “embryonic” admits Hague

June 5, 2011 11:58 am by Jim Pickard

When the western coalition invaded Iraq the problem was not the initial military campaign; Saddam Hussein was toppled in just days. It was instead the lack of adequate planning for the post-invasion scenario, with insufficient thought given to how the country would be run after the invasion.

Most news channels are focusing this morning on William Hague’s comments (on the Andrew Marr Show) that Gaddafi’s time is running out. (Some defecting officers, never the most reliable of sources, also told a Sunday newspaper that the regime is crumbling).

Continue reading: “Post-invasion plan for Libya only “embryonic” admits Hague”

Tags: gaddafi, libya, William Hague
Posted in Foreign policy | Permalink